Posted by: Earl
on Jan 27, 2009
After a week of rapid fire Executive Orders and Memoranda from President Obama I have to wonder if someone fell asleep at the wheel? I take no issue with the need for improved standards as reported by FoxNews.com on Monday.
"The first memorandum ordered the Transportation Department to work out rules for automakers to improve fuel economy. It calls for the department to notify automakers by March 2009 to increase their fuel efficiency for 2011 model year cars and trucks. "
Unfortunately when reading further I'm having a problem.
"The second memorandum ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider California's request for a waiver from the Clean Air Act -- a move that would allow California, the nation's most populous state, to set tougher tailpipe emission standards than apply nationally. .....Thirteen other states -- Arizona, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington -- have already signaled they will follow California's lead in reducing tailpipe pollution. Approval of California's waiver would affect roughly half of all cars and light trucks sold nationwide."
Doesn't this fall into the realm of protecting interstate commerce, one of the tenets of the U.S. Constitution? How could this even be feasible if the auto industry was not in critical condition. Can anyone possibly think that building vehicles to meet different standards in different states could be cost effective or efficient in any way. Technological innovation (and it is needed here) is not free. I'm not defending the auto industry in any way, shape, or fashion, but I certainly don't think that kicking them when they are down is going to help fix anything. Give me a break!
There's another problem with this. Having a fleet of vehicles that are more fuel efficient does not create demand for more fuel efficient. We can wish for people to demand these vehicles and it is true that demand is increasing but there are still a lot of people that don't care and don't feel it is there responsibility to do anything. This demand for efficiency has to be created in other ways. That's a subject for a later blog.
Posted by: Earl
on Dec 31, 2008
An interesting story in the Wall Street Journal yesterday -
Squeezing More Miles Out of That Hybrid. There is obviously a growing cottage industry for converting hybrid cars to plug-in. The featured shop in California is doing it for approximately #7000.
Buried in the article is what I believe to be the most important fact - we haven't got the batteries right yet. Consider that they are still too expensive, potentially dangerous, not very environmentally friendly, and their expected life makes payback challenging.
It is a good thing that there are people willing to overlook these challenges and make it their mission to improve the technology. With heavyweights like Andy Grove weighing in on this can only be a good thing. I'm more than a little annoyed by the naysayers that condemn billionaires that suggest broader investment when willing to put up their own resources as well. It would be good to remember that technology evolution has always been driven by the risk/reward. The investment incentive has always been return on investment. It just happens though that some of the hurdles facing alternative energy development is bigger than individual investment. There is just too much work to do. Be thankful that there is still an opportunity for them to become even wealthier to justify their investments. Be thankful also there are people with a passion to try to slay the dragon with the their slingshots. One of them just might take one down with a lucky shot.
Posted by: Earl
on Oct 23, 2008
Thomas Friedman explained how in an op-ed in the New York Times in July this year. You cross an 80 year old Texas oilman with a 40 year old Israeli software whiz-kid. Some interesting reading. Since that piece appeared Shai Agassi's company, Better Place (see blog from a few days ago), has made excellent progress. There was another announcement that the worlds fourth largest country (by geographical area), Australia, has signed onto the plan. I don't know if this is going to work but it will be fun to watch. One key is going to be getting to economies of scale for vehicle and battery production. Agreements with governments and both traditional and new utilities providing clean (or cleaner) battery charging capacity can only be positive. Here's another link to the story in Australia regarding the investment required for the electric grid to support the rollout of charging points and battery replacement stations.
Posted by: Earl
on Oct 19, 2008
Better Place in the first instance is the company name. To create a better place in the second was the challenge issued to the founder of this company.
Better Place is designing a transportation system of plug-in vehicles, replaceable batteries, and stations where the battery replacement can occur if travel in excess of the 100 mile range occurs. This innovative start up, based in Israel, was founded in October 2007 on $200M investment but already has two countries, Israel and Denmark, on board.
Renault-Nissan is signed on to produce cars to by the middle of the next decade. Better Place is designing an operating system to predict range of travel and direct driver to battery stations in most efficient manner.
In Denmark, the Danish Oil and Natural Gas (DONG) company is onboard to provide the unpredictable output from their turbines into the electrical grid to charge the batteries (while introducing no additional carbon into the atmosphere).
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